First U.S.-China High-Level Joint Dialogue on Cybercrime and Related Issues Summary of Outcomes

On Dec. 1, 2015, in Washington, D.C., Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, together with Chinese State Councilor Guo Shengkun, co-chaired the first U.S.-China High-Level Joint Dialogue on Cybercrime and Related Issues.  Under the commitments made by U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the state visit in September 2015, the primary objectives of the dialogue were to review the timeliness and quality of responses to requests for information and assistance with respect to cybercrime or other malicious cyber activities and to enhance cooperation between the United States and China on cybercrime and related issues.  In addition to members of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, representatives from the Department of State, National Security Council and Intelligence Community participated for the United States, while the Chinese delegation included representatives from the Committee of Political and Legal Affairs of CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Justice and the State Internet Information Office.

During the dialogue, both countries discussed ways to enhance cooperation within the bounds of each nation’s legal framework and assessed progress made on cases identified during their discussions in September 2015.  They reached the following specific outcomes:

    1. Guidelines for Combatting Cybercrime and Related Issues.  Attorney General Lynch, Secretary Johnson and State Councilor Guo reached agreement on a document establishing guidelines for requesting assistance on cybercrime or other malicious cyber activities and for responding to such requests.  These guidelines will establish common understanding and expectations regarding the information to be included in such requests and the timeliness of responses.

    2.Tabletop Exercise.  Both sides decided to conduct a tabletop exercise in the spring of 2016 on agreed-upon cybercrime, malicious cyber activity and network protection scenarios to increase mutual understanding regarding their respective authorities, processes and procedures.  During the tabletop exercise, both sides will assess China’s proposal for a seminar on combatting terrorist misuse of technology and communications, and will consider the U.S.’s proposal on inviting experts to conduct network protection exchanges.  

    3. Hotline Mechanism.  Pursuant to the commitment between the two presidents to establish a hotline for escalation of issues that may arise in the course of responding to cybercrime and other malicious cyber activities, both sides decided to develop the scope, goals and procedures for use of the hotline before the next High-Level Dialogue.

    4. Enhance Cooperation on Combatting Cyber-Enabled Crime and Related Issues.  Both sides decided to further develop case cooperation on combatting cyber-enabled crimes, including child exploitation, theft of trade secrets, fraud and misuse of technology and communications for terrorist activities, and to enhance exchanges on network protection.  Both sides decided to improve cooperation among the relevant agencies, within the framework of the high-level dialogue, on network protection issues. U.S. and Chinese cyber incident and network protection experts will meet on Dec. 3, 2015, and will continue to meet regularly during future dialogues. 

    5. Second U.S.-China High-Level Joint Dialogue on Cybercrime and Related Issues.  Attorney General Lynch, Secretary Johnson and State Councilor Guo decided to schedule the second U.S.-China High-Level Dialogue on Combatting Cybercrime and Related Issues in June 2016.  The dialogue will take place in Beijing, China.